Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Storm's a-brewin'

I'm well on my way to becoming a certified, official Massachusetts resident. Well, I suppose I became an official resident when I registered to vote in Dedham, but I still had a New York state license at the time. Last week, that changed when I went to the RMV in Roslindale (big mess trying to park -- I almost got stuck in the unplowed Roslindale library, which had about two inches of slippery, mashed-up snow covering its parking lot) and surrendered my New York license for a Massachusetts one. It's just a temporary piece of paper now, but soon I'll get the real thing in the mail.

The last task I had to take care of was finally registering my car here. Now, there was a snag, being as the car was still in my dad's name, but the last time I was in Herkimer, he transferred the title to me. All that was left to do was get a new insurance policy and fill out the vehicle excise-tax waiver. Filling out the waiver was easy -- getting an insurance policy was a bit more daunting. I decided to go with Darren's car-insurance company, which he goes through to insure both his car and motorcycle. I probably should have transferred my license after getting the policy, because I had to jump through a few hoops to get my old N.Y. license number, without which I'd have no previous driving experience on record and would have to pay through the nose for insurance. Luckily, my old insurance company had it. With a new policy on hand, I should receive my RMV1 form in the mail today or tomorrow, after which I can finally register the car here, get my new plates on site, and be done with becoming an official "Masshole." Now all I have to do is learn to say "pahk the cah" correctly ...

Things are slow at work. There's a storm outside, and though it's nothing like we've had this turbulent New England winter, it's still scary to look out the window and see about two inches of snow on my car that weren't there when I got in to work -- and it's only supposed to compile on itself as the day goes on, later turning to icy rain and clearing up by midnight. I just hope the "commute" (Darren thinks we live too close to our places of work to call it commuting) back isn't too bad. It's our day off from work, so I intend when I get home to hunker down in my pajama pants in our nice heated townhouse, maybe watch a couple old episodes of "Big Love," which Darren's gotten me way too deep into after showing me just the first and second episodes. Since the new season has started, I feel I have to catch up, just like when Darren got me madly into "Mad Men."